...and let me show you how it's done.
Rescue Beauty Lounge, Bruised.
Old news, I know.
This color is hard to describe. Cocoa with raisins? Muted plum? Raisins without the cocoa? All in all, I do not have any dupes for Bruised in my stash. Cousins - yes: SpaRituals The Giving Tree, Sephora OPI Call Your Mother and On Stage, to name a few. Siblings, let alone twins, - no. It's a tad (or two tads) lighter than it appears on my picture; but this pic is the most color accurate tone-wise.
Unlike most RBLs, Bruised gave me some troubles - its formula seemed to be both runny and glue-ish, if it makes any sense. It is, thou, highly pigmented - if it was not for the weird formula, I could get away with just one coat.
This color is perfect by itself, but I decided to konad it anyway. $OPI On Stage for the design, and I got this:
For some reason, this manicure reminds me of Good Old England. Tea parties, tea roses, wide-brimmed hats, Pym's novels, fox hunting and an old lady flannel undies. I told you - I have sophistication.
PS: This is not spit on my nails. You should know me better to know that I know better than spit on my precious nails. It's Oh So Wet top coat decided to get bubbly on me. Suggestive name probably explains its ugly behavior, but it's another story, for another post.
Read More...
Summary only...
Have you ever smudged a fresh mani? No? Lucky you - your mortgage is probably paid off, tires never need a rotation and your toilet paper gives birth to a new roll every time you run out. Good for you. As for me - I'm a queen of smudging. Queen of smudging no more, for I've discovered a great product: Smudge Fixer.
OK, today I was turning off a cell phone for a class and chipped my perfect Malaga Wine mani.
School=trouble.
To repair a chip like this one, I usually apply a dot of polish right on the chip, let it set for a bit; then apply a thin coat all over a nail and finish with a fresh top coat. If everything goes smoothly. Do you remember Cinderella's Stepmother? "I said "If".
Usually this happens because I'm a klutz. Today I hit my nail solely for educational purposes.
Good news: even this disaster of a chip is reparable. Get a big blob of Smudge Fixer and drop it on the nail - where you have the thickest layer, not on a place where you have a thinner layer or no polish left. There:
Then start smoothing the bulge out, rewetting the brush as needed. What you are trying to do is to make all layers even. Work in progress:
Gently push the wrinkle with a dripping wet brush towards the bald spot, until you have almost no wrinkle left. Then liberally apply Smudge Fixer on the whole nail (as if you are painting it) to level all layers out completely.
Wait a couple of minutes; apply a new coat of polish; finish with your top coat of choice.
Voila!
Honestly, with such a huge chip I'd rather remove the polish completely and redo this nail - I used Smudge Fixer just for the sake of this tutorial. Smaller chips will take almost no time and no effort to repair. Be careful: color will transfer to the brush and into the Smudge Fixer bottle, unless you wipe off/rinse your brush before dipping it again into the bottle.
Smudge Fixer is available retail (Sally's Beauty Supplies, Ulta and CVS, to name a few) and via major etailers.
Read More...
Summary only...
Misa I Will Survive is a great basic color. Sorry, guys, no pictures here. For some reason I could not make myself to take a picture of my nails with the black polish. Yep, I Will Survive is a glossy black, perfectly opaque in two colors. Formula was a bit runny, but otherwise it's a great color, if you're into blacks. I'm not, but I might user it for frankening. So far, my one and only attempt in custom-mixing polishes is my Perfect Purple.
But I know someone who is way more experienced in this kind of alchemy. My friend Amanda has recently started a blog dedicated to frankening. Take a look at the colors she makes. I'm jealous.
Read More...
Summary only...
Yes. I thought it would be like King-Kong vs Godzilla or Alien vs Predator. Harsh reality: College Algebra wins. To the extent of me running around with chipped nails. So, it's more like Godzilla vs Little Stuart. That means I will spare you my annoying bubbling and go right to the business.
Misa Persian Carpet
Wonderful purple:
It's a very, very warm color. It actually has a strong amber cast to it, visible under the certain angles only (of course! - certain angles, certain lights...grrr).
Golden Thread. Rusty-brownish red. More of a Fall color, but who cares if it's beautiful:
These two colors are from the same "Fabric" family as the spectacular Embroidered Emerald, Brocaded Burgundy, Crimson Damask and Sepia Stained Cotton.
I was looking up those names for you and found out that Embroidered Emerald has been discontinued. Utter shame. Fortunately, Misa people seem to listen to us, humble customers. So if you want this color back - and I sure do - contact Misa and let them know.
Read More...
Summary only...
For some reason, this manicure reminds me of Good Old England. Tea parties, tea roses, wide-brimmed hats, Pym's novels, fox hunting and an old lady flannel undies. I told you - I have sophistication.
Posts
